Sixteen comments

Maudabawn Chapel

Someone was asking for Ed Reavy tunes, and this is probably his most popular composition. I know it was posted within a discussion thread on this site, but I was surprised to see it hadn’t been officially posted yet. So here ‘tis.

Talk about getting a lot of mileage out of one phrase. Mr. Reavey found a musical and engaging way to repeat GABD in three octaves within the first 4 bars of this reel, which—once you know that—makes it easier to learn. Aim for a steady stream of notes, with perhaps less accent on the beat than you might normally apply to a reel. The only other hazard are those shifty little c’s—from natural to sharp and back.

The B Part starts off like Drowsy Maggie, and the "standard" second bar continues in that vein: |E2 BE dEBE|E2 BE AFDF|…but I like Kevin Burke’s variation (as posted here) because it helps me avoid derailling into Drowsy Maggie at this point. Then you can use the standard way as a variation the next time round.

Eileen Ivers does this as an air, and she Eminors out the first bar of Part A: |GEED DE2 D|G,A,B,D EGDB,|…a variation I really enjoy, even at a more typical reel tempo. In fact, I usually start the tune this way, and then use the |G3 D E2 DB,| version the second time through.

For more ideas, listen to Kevin Burke’s latest cd, In Concert. You can also hear Reavey himself on a tribute album, titled Ed Reavy, released in 1979.

Ed Reavy was a fiddler and prolific composer of more than 400 peculiarly fluid, meandering tunes. He was born in 1898 in County Cavan at Maudabawn. This tune is named for the local church.

Reavy moved to the States in 1912 and ended up in Drexel Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia, working as a plumber. He died in 1988.

Not set in stone, not as well known as the Sistine chapel. Yet, more moving -and enduring- than it. An Dúchas needs not even put its seal to it as long as there will be fiddlers to play this humble masterpiece.

Some thoughts from Kevin Burke

"Thanks for the email. I presume at this stage that the tune could justifiably be referred to as "my version" (because I often play it even though it must be about 30yrs since I recorded it) but I wasn’t thinking of devising "my version" when I started playing it. I simply liked the tune, heard it from several sources and gradually developed a way of playing it that seemed appropriate. I’ve no idea if Ed Reavy ever heard me play it so I don’t know what he might have thought of it. I hope he’d have liked it … but you never know! I don’t really know if there is such a thing as a "mistaken" version of any tune but it’s probably true to say my version is different from the way Reavy wrote it originally. Having said that, if we could hear Ed Reavy playing it today it too would probably be different from what he wrote originally.

By nature traditional music tends to develop and alter over time and that was especially true when there weren’t many recordings available. You’d hear a tune at a session, try to remember it and then later cobble something together that sounded similar to what you had heard the previous night. SOmetimes the bits that weren’t quite "right" would be heard by other players and maybe adopted by them too. Sometimes however the realisation would come that those differences weren’t quite working and would therefore be changed again. Basically it’s down to the player to make those decisions, often based on who he/she’s playing with.

One further note - I don’t agree that the different versions of the A and B parts can’t be mixed. I’d say it’s worth giving it a go!

Mairtin Byrnes and Brendan McGlinchey were 2 great players who attracted me to the tune first so I’m sure I picked up certain "moves" from them but it was pretty popular in the 60’s and I’m sure I absorbed ideas from plenty of other people too.

The Reefs

Transcribed from Vincent Griffin’s 1977 LP ‘Traditional Fiddle Music from County Clare’. Vincent could not remember where he learned it, nor its name. The name "The Reefs" was given to Robin Morton by Cathal McConnell.

I remember Cathal playing this in a session in Sandy Bell’s some years ago and calling it "The Reefs" - which is obviously a corruption of "Reavy’s". I also remember him saying he thought it was too good a tune to play in a session !

Transcribed from Vincent Griffin’s 1977 LP ‘Traditional Fiddle Music from County Clare’. Vincent could not remember where he learned it, nor its name. The name "The Reefs" was given to Robin Morton by Cathal McConnell.

# Posted on July 20th 2012 by Nigel Gatherer

I remember Cathal playing this in a session in Sandy Bell’s some years ago and calling it "The Reefs" - which is obviously a corruption of "Reavy’s". I also remember him saying he thought it was too good a tune to play in a session !

Maudabawn Chapel, X:8

I wrote out the Kevin Burke version, which as blasphemous as this may sound, I like better than the original (much). I thought I should share this version and was surprised to not find it already posted especially since it was discussed. The chords are cool too and I’ll be playing this with my guitar player friend so I added them for that purpose. I am a flute player so I have to jump octaves in a few places unfortunately.

Maudabawn Chapel, X:9

Taken from ‘A Fine Selection of Over 200 Irish Traditional Tunes for Sessions’, compiled by David Speers with a Forward by Matt Cranitch. I’m not sure about the repeated F# in bar 6, but that’s how it’s written. It gives that part a slightly different feel.